Correct. Think of it like Rabies: There would still be isolated outbreaks here and there. However, since people would know how to deal with them, casualties would be limited and the outbreaks would be quickly confined.
And I almost hate to bring up AIDS (both because of the political implications and because of Herschel's implications) but in our lifetimes we've seen how medical providers and first responders can adopt to a potential pandemic and people adjust to that: everyone now wears rubber gloves, there are special disposal methods for medical waste, condoms are more openly discussed, etc.
No doubt a post zombie world would be harsher but there is already precedence throughout history for people to adapt behaviors to pandemics without the world coming to an end.
Neither of those examples are anything
close to the zombie virus. Not even the horrors of the Black Plague approach the levels of how awful it is. It has a
100% infection rate, is often nearly instantaneous, the victims don't just fall to the ground and die but become bloodthirsty, mindless psychopaths that want to eat you alive, and it spreads like wildfire as a result. Even a tiny bite or scratch seems to be enough to do the job.
It can't be quarantined. It'll never go away. Anyone and everyone who dies turns into a monster, no matter the circumstances of their death (sans getting shot in the head or something similar, which is a pretty damn rare way to die). Refraining from sex won't save you from it. A few shots in the stomach won't cure you.
The only way to survive in such a world is to be paranoid and alert 100% of the time. Which is impossible to do. Even if you shoot everyone in the head when they die, zombies will still crop up. Constantly. And forever. With
no hope in sight. Ever. Even when highly intelligent and educated medical practitioners were alive and functioning in relative safety -- including the very same ones who came up with the virus in the first place -- were unable to create any kind of cure for it. And all those smart, trained, and equipped individuals are likely dead. So even that's beyond hope for these people.
And worse, the larger the society, the less chance they'd have to survive for all those very reasons. Isolated groups would be the only likely means of surviving for any length of time, and they would slowly die off one by one. You know, kind of like Rick's group is.
Sorry, but no, they would have no hope for a normal society.. Any type of society that
could counter all of the issues would be one that is
nothing like what these people are familiar with. And it would likely be brutal and cold beyond description. "Shooting people in the head when they die" would be the most simplistic, minimalist trait of such a society.
And if you honestly think otherwise, you're clearly not thinking things through.